I have to say that when I listen to a band cover a song, I'm always most impressed when they hit it note for note and have the tone down. That goes for bands playing their own music live too! Though it is nice when they mix things up a little. David Gilmour played a nice extended variation of the Money solo in Pink Floyd concerts.

My goal is to get as close as I can.

The value I see in learning songs that you enjoy, think are cool, or appeal to you for some reason is you will pick up some techniques, phrasing, or note combinations that you would never think of. Since you enjoy the song to begin with, you'll likely stick with it.

And yes, sometimes it means taking it a measure at a time. Eventually you'll get there :-). This is my new mantra to myself, because slow and steady wins the race.

So, to tie it back to this thread - my missions are:
- Learn the acoustic part of Let it Be
- Learn the rhythm part and solo for Day Tripper
(yeah, I'm a beatles fan :-).
- Start a regular routine with "Guitar Fretboard Workbook" to learn the fretboard cold.
- Pick a song to work on from one of my new "play along" tab book/CD combos I got. That will be a challenge since the books I got are Rush, Aerosmith (old classic stuff), and Pink Floyd. I want to get more proficient with tab.
- Start recording my progress playing over backing tracks. I already did this with the Let it Be solo and the results were VERY motivating for me.

Happy New Year everyone!!!